Pease Tradeport Air Show 2007

So there was an airshow over the weekend at the Pease Tradeport. I managed to get tickets through the credit union, and decided to pop along to see the show.

By far and away the star of the show was this guy Rob Holland. He had a small little sports aerobatic plane and he just was incredible. The plane moved so fast and in every which way you can imagine. I only have a couple of bad photos of his act but check him out here: http://www.ultimateairshows.com/Videos.html

There were lots of planes on display - one of my favorites is the A-10 Thunderbolt. It has a huge gun on the nose that fires 9,000 rounds of depleted unanium shells per minute. It's designed as an anti-tank plane. If you see one of these coming your way, you're about to have a very bad day!

Then of course for all the Top Gun fans - the F-15. No sign of Tom Cruise though...

Another highlight - there was a Jet Car on display, they fired it up and raced it against Rob Holland in his sports plane. Rob of course flew upside-down.

The F-18 Hornet came out about mid-day. What's really weird about the jets is that you really can't hear them at all until they fly by. Obviously they couldn't break the sound barrier for the show but this one and the F-16 later on got pretty close. The F-18 can do 1800mph, the F-16 can go 1400mph. Anyone who's heard an F1 car up close will know the sort of noise we're talking about here.

Yeah it may be tough to see it but in fairness - you try and snap a decent photo when this thing ticks over at about 150mph.

The F-16 above is affectionatly known as the Viper.

What amazed me most is that really these planes are much smaller than I had imagined.

There was one showpiece - the Skywalker. This woman is a special kind of crazy. That is her on top of the wing. The plane did loops and barrel rolls, figures of eight.

There were some great old planes there too. My favorites were the P4, P40 and the B25, below.

There was some formation flying too, most impressive for me was the F16 and the F86 fly-by that happened at the end of the day. It was actually more difficult for the F16 to stay in formation as it had to operate almost near its idling speed to stay with the older F86.

All in all, a grand day out!

The "new" Jetta

Well I have been absolutely inundated with a request for photos of the Jetta, so without further ado, here it is - in all its glory!

Note the luxurious "GLS" specification......

Not too bad for 140,000 miles.... ignore the condition of the front wing....

Cheap and cheerful - don't know how much longer I can justify keeping the 320BHP monster next to it, just sitting in the driveway...

My new car

So, finally, here is the car.

Thinking about de-badging the "2.7 Quattro" bit, and maybe the "A6"

17" BBS alloys, with Michelin Pilot Sport tyres.

Audio and cruise control buttons on the steering wheel. Nice feel to it - leather wrapped.

Black interior is very nice. Sports seats are excellent.

Here's hoping the turbos never need any work, apparently it's an "engine out" job to replace them, as they're mounted at the other end of the engine.

The Xenon headlights are amazing. They make a huge difference to night driving.

The car sits very low, thanks to the sports suspension. It's fantastic to drive.